A conventional pedometer measures the vibrations from human walking by a vibration sensor or an acceleration sensor, processes the measured data signal according to the stable frequency and velocity during walking of the human body and thus calculates the actual number of walking steps. As only the walking mode is taken into consideration, such a device can merely record the amounts of walking activity and the energy consumption therefrom, but cannot accurately measure and record other activities.
Many novel activity measurement devices may measure all-day motion and sleep conditions. Compared with the conventional pedometers merely for measuring the number of steps, these novel devices provide a feasible implementation way to accurately measure the activity of the human body and related fat expenditure in one day. Some researchers consider that measuring oxygen intake is the best way to measure the daily motion intensity. The motion intensity may be inferred according to the oxygen intake during quantified motion and rest, so it is required to establish a great number of calculation relations between the energy consumption and the oxygen intake.
However, for some anaerobic exercises (for example, swimming and weightlifting), the oxygen intake cannot actually reflect the activity and the energy consumed by the human body. Meanwhile, as a device for measuring the oxygen intake has low precision, there is a large measurement error.
In addition, although there are many kinds of physical sports in the real life, the types of physical sports usually done by a person are limited, so that the energy consumption is mainly concentrated in several limited motion forms. The complicated calculation relations between the energy consumption and the oxygen intake are time-consuming, labor-consuming, and low in use frequency. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an energy consumption measuring method and an energy consumption measuring system, which are more accurate in calculation, more flexible in setup and easier to use.